FINDLAY GALLERIES
PTOLEMY MANN
SIGNIFICANT COLOUR
Significant Colour presents a new body of work exploring three techniques: hand dyed and woven works, paintings on canvas and ‘Thread Paintings’ where these two processes merge into one astonishing surface. Balanced between textile and fine art these new works reveal that the act of painting is close to the act of dyeing. Applying pigment to a hand-woven ground in quick, wet circumstances creates a permanent and spontaneous gesture that can’t be adjusted later. Mann’s practice of dyeing thread and painting on canvas is deeply connected.
Large canvases glow with ephemeral gestures creating alternative, abstract landscapes. Elemental themes are revealed through stained colourfields in conjunction with visceral brushstrokes. In contrast; refined woven surfaces float with bold chromatic minimalism. Painted veils hover above woven grounds.
– Ptolemy Mann
FINDLAY GALLERIES
Ptolemy Mann in her studio
“Ptolemy Mann’s woven artworks have long been concerned as much with the histories and possibilities of painting as those of hand-loom weaving. For inspiration, she looks to the works of Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler more than those of Anni Albers or Sheila Hicks. But what does it mean for an artist to paint onto a weaving; to apply a brushstroke to her own hand-woven, stretched and framed cloth; to layer a split-second, vibrant gestural mark over a painstakingly dyed and woven coloured ground? Mann’s recent work poses precisely this question. To feel our way towards an answer and to fully appreciate the boldness and significance of this move, we need to begin to unravel the long, complex and mostly unequal relationship between painting and weaving.
Most recently Mann has created a new series of Thread Paintings in which free, gestural strokes of colour are painted onto her tightly woven panels. Given the time and labour needed to create her hand-woven surfaces, this is a courageous step. Breaking the ‘rules’ of both weaving and painting, Mann’s brushstrokes are loaded with paint and with meaning. They could be seen as a
violent obliteration of the woven surface, yet the paint adds more colour, sitting in juxtaposition and harmony with the woven ground, sometimes soaking and bleeding into the fibres, sometimes appearing to float on top. Dyed colour and applied colour sit together, complicating the distinction between structure and surface, the woven and the painted, the thread and the trace. In Mann’s work, the thread becomes the trace and the trace becomes the thread. Woven threads suggest painted marks and painted marks bleed into woven threads in a fluid, fugitive process. In other words, painting and weaving become indistinct in effect, if not in process. Ptolemy Mann is a weaver who paints with thread and an artist who paints on thread. She is both a weaver and a painter creating works in which the categories of painting and weaving become unstable, running into each other. In this way, her work introduces equality to the centuries-long relationship between painting and weaving.”
– Ann Coxon (Curator, Formerly of Tate Modern, UK)
From her Essay for the monograph ‘THREAD PAINTING’
THREAD PAINTINGS
Indigo Mountain River, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141890
Earthbound (After Japan), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141879
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141892
(detail image on front cover)
Mauve Thread Painting, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
Detail image of Ikat Stripe (Indigo Gesture)
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
Ikat Stripe (Indigo Gesture), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
FG© 141887
Gamboge Thread Painting, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141884
Caligraphic (On Teal Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141909
Spectrum on Yellow Ground, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose and acrylic paint
19 2/3 x 19 2/3 in.
FG© 141898
Caligraphic (On Indigo Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141907
Thread Painting with Lemon Violet, 2025 hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
59 x 70 7/8 in.
HAND DYED WOVEN WORKS
Indigo Forest, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose | 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. | FG© 141888
Midnight Moon Forest (After Japan), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose | 39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. | FG© 141893
23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in.
FG© 141886
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141905
(right) Aubergine Indigo Yellow Ikat Drawing, 2025 hand dyed and woven viscose with pigment dye
(left) Ikat Drawing with Yellow and Violet, 2025 hand dyed and woven viscose with pigment dye
Scarlet Minimalism, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
59 x 43 1/3 in.
FG© 141896
Primary Colour, 2025 hand dyed and woven viscose 59 x 47 1/4 in. FG© 141894
Woven Ground with Red Yellow Purple, 2025 hand dyed and woven viscose
59 x 47 1/4 in. FG© 141903
WORKS ON CANVAS
The Energy of Love, 2023
acrylic on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141904
Falling Water, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141881
The Painted Veil, 2025 acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141900
78 3/4 x 59 in.
(detail image on back cover)
Ethereal Land, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
FG© 141880
(left) Sussex Landscape, 2023
acrylic on canvas
47 1/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141899
(right) Chasm, 2025
acrylic on canvas with liquid watercolour pigment
59 x 47 1/4 in.
FG© 141910
Circadian Rhythm on view at the Tate Modern, London, UK
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Significant Colour, Findlay Galleries, New York, USA
Woven Gestures, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, UK
Woven Colour, Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, UK
Mann and Women - Presented by Gallery Lau, Goldberg Studios, Munich, Germany
A Danish Colour Odyssey, Galleri Lene Bilgrav, Århus, Denmark
Thread Painting - Presented by Taste Contemporary, Cromwell Place, London, UK
Unconscious Color, Findlay Galleries, Palm Beach, USA
Thresholds II, Findlay Galleries, New York, USA
Thresholds, Findlay Galleries, Palm Beach, USA
Circadian Rhythm – Commissioned triptych,
Tate Modern Gallery, London, UK
Bauhaus / Handwerk, Gallery Lau, Munich, Germany
Albedo, Old Street Gallery, London, UK
The Architecture of Cloth – Colour and Space, UK
A year long touring exhibition at Ruthin, Dovecot Studios,
The Aram Gallery and Harley Galleries finishing at Gloucester Cathedral
Chromatic Minimalism, Gallery Lau, Munich, Germany
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Fluid Threads with Jinya Zhao – Presented by Taste Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
Colour, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London, UK
Continuities: 2000 Years of Textile Arts in South America with Paul Hughes Fine Arts, Lamb Gallery, London, UK
The Blue Hour, Officinet, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Golden Hour, Galleri Lene Bilgrav, Copenhagen, Denmark
Art Genève – Art Fair with Taste Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
Odd and Even – A Collection, Presented by Taste Contemporary, Maison Louis Carré, Paris, France
2000 Years of Abstraction with Paul Hughes Fine Arts, Maiden Bradley Chapel, Somerset, UK
Art Genève – Art Fair with Taste Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
Miart – Art Fair with Taste Contemporary, Milan, Italy
Art Genève – Art Fair with Taste Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland
The Most Real Thing – New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury, UK
Crafted – The Royal Academy, London, UK
Modern Makers – Presented by Sotheby's, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK
Inspired By – The Legacy of Anni Albers, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, UK
Significant Colour, The Aram Gallery, London, UK
Hue Line and Form – Curated by Peter Ting, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK
The London Art Fair 2005/6 and 2007 with Adrian Sassoon, London, UK
SCOPE – New York, USA
Collect Art Fair for Contemporary Objects, V&A Museum, London, UK
Ptolemy Mann-Textiles & Bob Crooks-Glass, Contemporary Applied Arts, London, UK
Design Resolutions, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
Decorative Arts Today, Bonhams, London, UK
Scarlet Minimalism, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
59 x 43 1/3 in.
FG© 141896
Ikat Drawing with Yellow and Violet, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with pigment dye
23 5/8 x 31 1/2 in.
FG© 141886
Primary Colour, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
59 x 47 1/4 in.
FG© 141894
Woven Ground with Red Yellow Purple, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
59 x 47 1/4 in.
FG© 141903
Indigo Yellow Ikat Drawing, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with pigment dye
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141905
Indigo Forest, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141888
Midnight Moon Forest (After Japan), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose
39 3/8 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141893
Aubergine
Spectrum on Burnt Orange Ground, 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose and acrylic paint
19 2/3 x 19 2/3 in.
FG© 141897
Spectrum on Yellow Ground, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose and acrylic paint
19 2/3 x 19 2/3 in.
FG© 141898
Caligraphic (On Orange Woven Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. | FG© 141908
Gamboge Thread Painting, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141884
Flow Thread Painting, 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose and acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141883
Caligraphic (On Blue Woven Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141906
Scarlet Level, 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141895
Caligraphic (On Teal Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141909
Mauve Thread Painting, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141892
Indigo Mountain River, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141890
Earthbound (After Japan), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141879
Caligraphic (On Indigo Ground), 2024
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141907
Japanese Ink, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint and pigment dye
15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
FG© 141891
Ikat Stripe (Indigo Gesture), 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
29 1/2 x 23 5/8 in.
FG© 141887
Thread Painting with Lemon Violet, 2025
hand dyed and woven viscose with acrylic paint
59 x 70 7/8 in.
FG© 141901
Sussex Landscape, 2023
acrylic on canvas
47 1/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141899
Chasm, 2025
acrylic on canvas with liquid watercolour pigment
59 x 47 1/4 in.
FG© 141910
Ethereal Land, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141880
Thread, 2025
acrylic on canvas
39 3/8 x 27 9/16 in.
FG© 141902
Green Portal, 2025
acrylic on canvas
27 4/7 x 39 3/8 in.
FG© 141885
Floating Air, 2025
acrylic Paint on Canvas
39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in.
FG© 141882
Indigo Love, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141889
Dark Fire, 2023
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141878
Falling Water, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141881
The Painted Veil, 2025
acrylic and liquid watercolour pigment on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141900
The Energy of Love, 2023
acrylic on canvas
78 3/4 x 59 in.
FG© 141904
